Vinnie Pasquantino's Second-Half Success Against Lefties Holds Promise For 2027

[Yirsandy Rodríguez]

Throughout the first half of the season, it felt as if Vinnie Pasquantino was far away from the hitter who, in 2025, became the third left-handed hitter in Royals history to have a 30-home-run, 30-double season. That season, he also hit home runs in five consecutive games, from August 18-22.

Vinnie got off to a slow start and then missed 40 games due to two separate stints on the injured list: first, from June 14 to July 9, with a fracture of the right hamate bone; then, from July 29 to August 16, with discomfort in his right wrist. The only month in which he recorded more than 100 wRC+ during the first half was June, with 118, when his slugging seemed to awaken as he surpassed .400 for the first time, reaching .426. However, he fell back to 95 wRC+ in July and finished that first stretch with a line of just .222/.308/.345, six home runs, 32 RBIs, and 80 wRC+. Last year, in what could be considered the best season of his career, Pasquantino reached the All-Star Game break with 15 home runs, 56 RBIs, and 109 wRC+.

Much of the trouble was due to the combination of breaking pitches, especially sweepers and sliders. Vinnie did not hit any home runs in 72 plate appearances that ended with a breaking pitch, while his BABIP fell to .145, his xBA to .209, and his xSLG remained at just .320. The problem was not limited to his expected statistics: the quality of his contact also suffered, with a Barrel/BBE rate of 3.6%.

This is where part of the problem that followed Vinnie throughout that first stretch begins to emerge: his lack of consistency against left-handed pitchers. It has always been one of his weaknesses, and opponents keep going back to it. In his career, Pasquantino averages just 81 wRC+ against lefties, with a batting line of .236/.293/.368. He has had only one season in which he produced consistently against them: precisely his debut season in the Major Leagues, in 2022, when he recorded an .854 OPS and 148 wRC+, although in just 65 plate appearances.

At that point, the season seemed irrecoverable. However, Pasquantino managed to make adjustments against left-handed pitchers and completely changed the course of his campaign. He finished the second half with a .294/.374/.563 line and 157 wRC+. In addition, he tied for second in MLB with 22 RBIs in September and, even more revealingly, put together good at-bats against lefties.

From June 3 through the end of the season, Pasquantino tied for fifth in the American League in OPS, at .902, among hitters with a minimum of 200 at-bats. He trailed only four players, including the leader, Yordan Alvarez, at 1.013. His 15.2% whiff rate in 2026 ranked in the 92nd percentile, an improvement over his 18.2% mark in 2025. After being reinstated from the injured list on August 17, he struck out just 16 times in 145 plate appearances. His 11.0% strikeout rate ranked seventh in the American League, behind Chandler Simpson's 5.4% mark.

Let’s now analyze some of his tendencies and how his approach at the plate may have led him to achieve these results.

Season	PA	BB%	K%	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	ISO	BABIP	wOBA	wRC+	O-Swing%	Z-Swing%	Swing%	O-Contact%	Z-Contact%	Contact%	Zone%	SwStr%
1st Half	83	7.2%	24.1%	.145	.217	.184	.401	.039	.196	.190	11	31.5%	63.50%	47.7%	72.5%	85.8%	81.5%	50.8%	8.8%
2nd Half	50	8.0%	12.0%	.311	.360	.556	.916	.244	.316	.389	149	33.0%	66.70%	50.5%	75.9%	92.2%	87.1%	52.2%	6.5%

The statistics in this table compare the first and second halves of the season, exclusively against left-handed pitchers. As you can see, the jump in production was brutal: he went from 11 wRC+ to 149, with an increase of .372 points in slugging and .515 in OPS. Vinnie changed the course of his at-bats by being a little more aggressive against pitches both inside and outside the zone. His contact improved in both metrics, with increases of 3.4 and 6.4 percentage points, respectively, while he reduced his SwStr% rate by 2.3 percentage points.

Remember his problems against breaking balls during the first half? He pulverized them in the second half, and raised his xBA to .319 and his xSLG to .876, with a Barrel/BBE rate of 44.4%.

Let’s now look at Pasquantino’s two heat maps.

On the left, we have Vinnie’s results against breaking pitches during the second half of the season; on the right, his report against left-handed pitchers over that same period. The first map shows his aggressiveness and the damage he managed to do in the lower part of the zone, as well as against pitches that moved away from him and sought to attack the outer corners. I love Vinnie’s swing when he is in sync and identifies those pitches well: he lets them travel, as he usually does, and then unleashes his swing.

In the other map, the offensive heat is concentrated in a point farther away, near the outer corner.

I reviewed all of Vinnie’s at-bats against lefties since the All-Star break. We have already seen some of the most revealing statistics, but I wanted to dig deeper into what he accomplished when he hit the ball to the opposite field or found a pitch he could punish. He was also devastating. In the second half of the season, he hit just 26 balls of that type: 18 to his pull side and eight to the opposite field. He recorded a .375 BABIP in both groups, with 143 and 286 wRC+, respectively.

Granted, it is a small sample. But it is part of a much more revealing picture and helps explain one of the factors that set Pasquantino’s season on a path toward a very different outcome at the plate.

Image courtesy of Natalie Reid-Imagn Images

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